The most recent wave of British terror attacks; cars at Glasgow airport, parked outside the TigerTiger nightclub in london and in various other locations, has failed to instil any kind of terror in me. In fact, it has ameliorated many of the concerns I had about further attacks this summer, especially as Brown took on the mantle of PM. Why? Because the terrorits in this case have shown an absolute lack of talent, skill or intelligence in their bomb construction. While the 7/7 bombers were able to undertake the very difficult and dangerous task of mixing peroxide based explosives successfully, this round of petrol, domestic gas cylinders and nail bombs is frankly, laughable.
As someone who grew up on a farm, routinely playing with various substances that might be considered dangerous, such as ammonium nitrate based fertilisers, and desperately striving to make them go bang, as well as various experiences in the Navy Combined Cadet Force,
where it seemed to be considered reasonable to teach 14 year old boys how to make ad-hoc detonators and the like, I'm well aware that some household chemicals can be dangerous, and that dangerous weapons can be made out of easily obtainable ingredients.
Why, then, did these terrorists feel it was necessary to build such a ineefectual weapon. Had the car bomb outside Tiger Tiger actually gone off,
it seems unlikely that this would have actually caused any significant damage. Car petrol tanks don't explode like in the movies, gas cylinders are
obscenely overdesigned to reduce any risk of them leaking, let alone exploding, in a fire, and boxes of nails simply will not be projected out in a rain of shrapnel from a gas and petrol explosion, which causes a visually specacular, but very low pressure fireball.
It's reassuring to see that the terrorists bent on destruction seem to be limited by the pressures of natural selection here; the horrible tragedies of 9/11 and 7/7, among others, were carried out by intelligent, well trained bombers. And media attention and concern was well directed to threats of this level, but I cannot take seriously terrorists who are unable to effectively cause terror; it's an own goal for the shadowy backers of these acts, frankly, and one I shall continue to chortle over for a few days.
